Analysis of Treated vs Untreated Water Samples from Kent County Regional Resource Recovery Facility

Abstract

Wastewater is used water consisting of many hazardous materials. The wastewater goes through a step by step procedure for treatment and decontamination at a local wastewater facility. Once harmful bacteria is taken out of the water, it is then returned back to the community waterways. The purpose of this research project is to properly analyze and differentiate the many characteristics of the microbiota within both treated and untreated wastewater samples from the Kent County Regional Resource Recovery Facility in Milford, Delaware. We hypothesized that the microbiota will differ in diversity and microbial load among the treated and untreated wastewater samples. We tested our hypothesis using the following tests: streaking samples against Mannitol Salt Agar Plate (MSA) and a MacConkey Agar Plate (MAC) as well as gram staining. We found within the MSA plates that four samples showed no mannitol utilization while two samples were yellow in color proving it utilized mannitol. With the MAC plates all samples except for one sample utilized lactose. You can tell it utilized lactose with the pink color and growth indicating gram negative organisms. For the gram staining, 4 samples were gram negative meaning they appeared pink and also possess a thicker cell wall. 2 samples were gram positive meaning they appeared to be purple in color and possess a thinner cell wall. This data will be useful to improve and scientifically inform the wastewater facility on how well the wastewater is actually being filtered and treated.